Benedictine University women’s basketball standout Tamika Curtis (Bellwood, Ill./Nazareth Academy) became the school’s career scoring leader on Wednesday evening in the Eagles’ 78-69 non-conference loss at Elmhurst College.
Curtis, a 6’0” senior center, entered the game needing just four points to surpass Jennifer Olson’s (1998-2002) previous mark of 1,563 points. Curtis overtook Olson at the 17:08 mark of the first half (photo at left) when she scored a layup off of an assist from Megan Walczak. Curtis finished the game with 22 points, upping her career total to 1,582 by night’s end (17.6 points per game for her career).
“We are all certainly proud of Tamika,” said Benedictine head coach Paul Nelson, who took over the Eagles’ reins Curtis’ freshman year. “While her numbers speak for themselves, Tamika is also a great representation of the type of student-athlete every coach wants. No one could be more deserving of this achievement than her. She is a consummate team player and has led by example all four years with the team.
“Tamika’s consistency and preparation are two key reasons why she is now our all-time leading scorer. If you look back at her career, her numbers have been very dependable. She doesn’t have a huge game and then several low scoring games. She’s pretty much right around her averages each night, and she does what is necessary to prepare to be effective versus each opponent.”
Nelson’s assertion is borne out by the statistics. Curtis has scored in double digits in 84 of her 90 career games. She has registered “double-doubles” (double figures in both points and rebounds in the same game) 46 times, more than half of the time she sets foot on the court. She also has 31 games with 20-plus points and six games with 30-plus points during that span.
Curtis is also averaging 10.5 rebounds per game, needing just 52 more boards to reach 1,000 for her career in that category. She averages 1.6 assists, 1.8 blocks and 2.7 steals per game for her career, as well. Her current career field goal percentage of .537 will - barring a collapse of epic proportions during the balance of this season - shatter the Eagles' current mark of .507 (also held by Olson).
In 2007-08, Curtis is shooting a career-best .582 from the floor. She is averaging 19.8 points and 11.8 rebounds a game this season.

###

Benedictine University is an independent Roman Catholic institution located in Lisle, Illinois just 25 miles west of Chicago. Founded in 1887, Benedictine provides 56 undergraduate majors, 16 graduate and four doctorate programs. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently ranked Benedictine University as the seventh fastest-growing campus among private nonprofit master’s universities, and Forbes magazine named Benedictine among the top 20 percent of America’s colleges for 2011. Benedictine University’s Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) program is listed by Crain’s Chicago Business as the fourth largest in the Chicago area in 2011.